As I've noted, I love the videos put out by the fine folks at The Dodo. Here's another from them, though it's probably best described as "endearing" --
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No, it's not "too early" to talk politics after the Jacksonville mass shooting. It's too late. The time to talk about mass shootings is before they happen.
When a young woman was tragically killed recently, the far right began screaming holy Hell for immigration reform. Three people (at least) were shot dead yesterday -- yet there is nothing but silence from the far right on gun reform. Sick hypocrites. (I should note that I don't use the young woman's name for the reason that the family has asked that she not be a political chip for the far right over immigration. Not because "liberals can't bear to mention her name." Mind you, no one foolishly making that charge ever brings up the name of the dead in the Jacksonville mass shooting -- or pretty much any mass shooting.) Little known fact -- if you post something critical about guns on social media after yet another mass murder, and criticize the gun manufacturer corporate-owned NRA terrorist fringe group, you'll get a LOT of tweet replies from people who seem not to like you very much and call you extremely bad names. Really!! It's true. By the way, to be fair, and just so no one accuses me about jumping on a mass shooting because it's too soon and not time yet, I want to say I'm saddened by the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007 and think enough time has passed to discuss what can be done so it doesn't happen again. Hopefully the NRA agrees. But as that aside, as long as we're talking sick hypocrites, "Fox News" actually had to disable User Comments on its YouTube videos Sunday after viewers "ruthlessly smeared" John McCain. Some comments were labeling him a traitor and hoping he burned in Hell. Imagine if it was Democratic user posting the comments. There'd be that same "holy Hell" of faux-outrage. But -- it's not Democrats smearing this war hero who spent 5-1/2 years tortured in a POW camp and wouldn't leave without his men, it's from Republicans. About their former party standard bearer. You can read about it here. Ladies and Gents -- and his fellow GOP senators and congressmen who enable this -- meet your Republican Party. Just one more box to check off. As I keep saying, this is no longer about Trump. We know who he is. This is about the Republican Party. The cruel, thoughtless, hypocritical violent base, many of them racist, or worse white supremacists, acting as assets to Russia, and the elected officials who enable them. This guest contestant on this week's "Not My Job" segment of the NPR quiz show, Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!, is Jeff Tweedy, one of the founding members of the group Wilco. I try to post these each week, though I don't embed all of them. But Mr. Tweedy made the cut -- an inside joke when you hear his very amusing interview with host Peter Sagal -- for one specific reason. As readers of these pages know, one of my friends is the tech guru whiz Ed Bott of ZDNet -- and Wilco is probably one of Ed's two favorite bands in the world, and he will go great distances to see them perform. Or at least reasonable distance. But he doesn't have to go far to hear this, nor do you, since clicking on the audio player will do the trick. What I didn't know, but learned from the interview, is that Jeff Tweedy has lived in Chicago for the past 25 years. He talks about that, as well as tells two long and very funny stories.
I figured that I really should have a bit of Leonard Bernstein's own music on the 100th anniversary of his birth yesterday. So, here's a successful, but lesser-known piece of his work, Fancy Free. This was a ballet that ended up being the basis for a longer work, the musical On the Town, about three sailors on shore leave in New York City. (Later made into a movie.) This is the full ballet, written in 1944 and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. performed here by the New York City Ballet in 1986, From the archives. This week's contestants are Peter and Mary-Bess Staffel from Bethany, West Virginia. This is an oddity: although I got both parts, it was touch-and-go that I would. I could tell the composer of the hidden song right away, but it took me a short while to "sing through" the song to get the title, but I did get it. It's well known, but might not be so for everyone. And the composer style was very guessable...but...it came down to two possibilities who overlap a bit. But I guessed right.
Earlier in the week, I went to the Skirball Museum, halfway between Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. They had two exhibits I wanted to see -- one, on Jim Henson and the Muppets, and the other dedicated to Leonard Bernstein in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Both were well-done, the Henson and Muppet certainly more fun (and nice seeing that it included a short video of Kukla, Fran and Ollie as one of his early inspirations), but there were some very nice touches in the Bernstein presentation. There was an area, for instance, where you could learn to conduct and do so along with a video, and a sort of recording booth that let you sing along with a song from Bernstein's West Side Story. There was also a video playing one of his early Young People's Concerts. I thought I'd check that out for a few seconds, and was taken by how fascinating it was and held up -- and I ended up staying watching longer than I thought. As it happens, today is that 100th anniversary. There have been Bernstein tributes all year, leading up to today, and a great many the past week. And I suspect if you turn on a classical music station today, or stream one from the Internet, you might find some that are dedicated to play his music. West Side Story, Candide, Wonderful Town, On the Town, Fancy Free, any of his symphonies, songs and more. So, there's plenty to find. I thought I'd instead let him speak for himself. This is one of his Young People's Concerts. It's a later one -- easy to tell, since it's in color -- from 1970. But it's just as vibrant as ever. This is on "The Anatomy of an Orchestra." Just like at the Skirball, I thought I'd check out a little bit of it...and just kept watching. You may not want to watch the whole thing -- it's 50 minutes or so -- but then you may find your self sucked in. But even if you just watch 10 minutes, or jump around through it, or watch it in parts, coming back to where you left out, I think it will be a treat. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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